Originally posted by EyeoftheHawk
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Kenny Pickett is a huge scapegoat for the Steelers, their fans, and much of the media that has very evident disdain towards Pitt and Pat Narduzzi (it is well known I am a Pitt fan, but this has ZERO to do with that). They blame him because he's the easiest thing to blame. But he was the furthest thing from the actual problem with the Steelers. Teams miss on quarterbacks every single year. And that isn't stopping anytime soon. If you actually look around the league, there are so few "franchise" level guys. It's hard to find one. A lot of 1st round picks end up as backups or are out of football in under 5 years. A third of the starters are just recycled guys that keep bouncing around the league.
The Steelers reshuffled their entire QB room, which was supposed to fix their problem. But at the end of the day, they are still 10-7 when it's all said and done. They are spending less money on the QB room today than they did last year, and used a chunk of that saved money to lock up a tight end who has achieved league average offensive production and cannot block. They have no idea what they are doing. People screamed about Pickett, but Wilson's production the last month of the season is the same or worse in some games than Pickett's was.
Arthur Smith is mostly a front man. This is Tomlin's approach. It's his philosophy. It's his offense. Paraphrasing this some, but Tomlin said in his press conference that he wanted to change their offensive approach this game against Cincy to "keep the ball away from Burrow," by utilizing conservative, high-percentage play calls in the passing game, and leaning on their run game. I nearly spit out my beverage when I heard that. The Steelers scored 44 points against the Bengals on the road and he wanted to play a conservative football game when his team is reeling and needs to find offensive footing. At the same time, despite wanting to "keep the ball away from Burrow," he gave Burrow the football on the opening drive, and his defense looked lost as Cincy marched down the field without the ball touching the ground.
Bottom line is it is Tomlin's team. Everything about it is. He believes the rest of the league will bend to how his vision of football. He refuses to adapt to how the sport is played or by doing what is actually necessary to win.
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